Hydraulic hammers are commonly used to deliver high energy impact blows to a tool for fracturing rock, coal, shale, cement, and so forth. One example of such use involves positioning a hydraulic hammer relative to a ripper shank wherein the impact blows are delivered to the shank and thus to the ripper tip and the material being ripped. In another example, it has been proposed to position a pair of hammers beneath a floor of a bucket to deliver impact blows to a cutting edge reciprocally movably connected to the bucket at the leading edge thereof. By using two hydraulic hammers rather than one central mounted hammer, overhanging externally applied loads can be better supported. In addition, packaging of the bucket design is more compact when two smaller hammers providing the same impact energy as a single larger hammer are used. One of the problems associated with such an arrangement having two hydraulic hammers delivering impact blows to a common tool is that the impact blows should be delivered to the cutting edge simultaneously for maximum effectiveness and to minimize the force differential in the common tool.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.